It's the cheapest Chromebook yet, but is it a piece of junk?

Internals, performance, and battery life

Most Chromebooks to date have integrated some sort of power-efficient, low-end processor, just enough RAM to get by, and a tiny amount of solid-state storage. Chrome OS' focus on streaming and cloud storage means that a small amount of speedy storage is generally preferable to a large amount of slow storage.

The C7 continues the tradition of using cheap processors and small amounts of RAM—a 1.1GHz Intel Celeron 847 and 2GB of DDR3 RAM drive most of the action here. But it uses a large and slow (but inexpensive) 5400RPM 320GB hard drive for storage. Since the Chromebook C7 is really just a rebranded Aspire AO756-2641, it's probable that it was cheaper, simpler, or both for Acer to continue using the same drive as the Windows version rather than swapping it out.

The drive's speed doesn't really affect performance much, with the exception of the still-relatively-quick boot time. Once it's loaded, Chrome OS doesn't access the disk often enough to make things feel appreciably slower than in a solid state-based model.

As always, the tests we can run on Chrome OS are predominantly just JavaScript benchmarks. JavaScript scores are generally useless for comparing performance unless you're measuring them on two systems that are running the same operating system and browser. For the purposes of this article, we'll go ahead and stick to measuring it against Samsung's $249 ARM Chromebook.

The C7 should give pause to anyone yammering on about things like the possibility of ARM-based MacBooks: ARM's current cutting-edge architecture, the 1.7GHz dual-core Cortex-A15 used in the $249 Samsung Chromebook, is measurably and consistently slower than a 1.1GHz dual-core Celeron processor from Intel. Adding insult to injury, that Celeron processor is based on the year-old Sandy Bridge architecture rather than the faster, more power-efficient Ivy Bridge. Anyone expecting ARM chips in a mid- or high-end notebook still has quite a bit of time to wait.

ARM still holds a power usage advantage, however. Samsung's ARM Chromebook is rated at over six and a half hours of battery life (we got around seven in our testing), but the C7 is rated at a piddly four hours—we got about three hours and 45 minutes browsing the Web and playing Pandora music with the screen brightness turned all the way up. That's slightly down from Google's estimates but definitely within the ballpark. The C7's battery life is significantly worse despite having a slightly larger battery—37Wh compared to the 30Wh battery in the ARM Chromebook. Intel's upcoming Haswell processors and current and future Atoms are supposedly pretty aggressive about closing this power usage gap, but this particular Celeron is relatively power-hungry.

Repairability

Enlarge/ The C7 is very easy to open and work on, though it will void your warranty. One RAM slot, in the center of this picture, is completely empty.

Andrew Cunningham

The C7 isn't quite as svelte or attractively built as the ARM Chromebook, but the upside is it's repairable and upgradeable unlike any of the Ultrabooks and convertible PCs we've focused on for the last few months. Just be warned: opening this computer up in any way voids Acer's warranty, probably since Chromebooks aren't really meant to be operated on.

Popping one of the Phillips head screws off the bottom of the computer gives you ready access to its two RAM slots (only one of which is being used) and 2.5-inch hard drive—neither of these items really needs to be upgraded if you plan on using the C7 as a Chromebook in the long-term. But if you plan on doing some tinkering with the computer, the ability to replace the major components so easily is definitely a plus. Note that if you're upgrading the hard drive, the C7 uses a slim 7.5mm high model rather than the more traditional 9.5mm size.

Conclusions

Chrome OS is still a bit of a tough sell, but the C7 and the ARM Chromebook are both cheap enough to finally make it palatable. Neither is an especially high-quality laptop, but at these price points they're a significant step up from the tiny, cheap netbooks that have been sold by these same manufacturers at these same price points. If you're on board with the operating system's limitations and the corners that were cut to slash the prices, the biggest question is which one to buy.

The Samsung Chromebook is slightly more expensive but overall it's the better-made of the two computers. Its fanless design, lighter weight, and better battery life are all worthwhile extra features. The C7 shines in other areas: it's got a better port selection, better performance, and its Intel-based roots and easy-to-upgrade internals make it an excellent target for tinkerers looking for a cheap computer to hack around with.

We'll look more at this computer's "hackability" in another article, but its Intel-based hardware could make it an especially appealing choice if you're looking for small, cheap Linux laptop. The C7 plus ChrUbuntu might be exactly what you're looking for, definitely a better option than the $329 Windows version.

The Ugly

Promoted Comments

A laptop that costs $1500 has a 1366x768 display that is completely ignored by the reviewer.

A laptop that costs $200 has a 1366x768 display that the reviewer highlights as a horrible thing.

I think the Ars reviewers need to sit down and talk about realism in hardware, and come to some kind of consensus as to what kind of hardware one should expect at various price ranges.

I don't think the author is complaining about the screen having a resolution of 1366x768. On an 11" screen, that's quite reasonable. He's complaining more about the picture quality, the viewing angles and contrast ratios. I'll admit that I've not spent much time with the 11" Macbook Air but what time I have spent with it, it seems to me that the viewing angles on them are pretty good.

Andrew Cunningham / Andrew has a B.A. in Classics from Kenyon College and has over five years of experience in IT. His work has appeared on Charge Shot!!! and AnandTech, and he records a weekly book podcast called Overdue.